Letterpress: Looking backward to look forward
- Submitting institution
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Ravensbourne University London
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- RG01
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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- Title of journal
- Visible Language
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 52
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 0022-2224
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This is a 6,000 word peer-reviewed article that interrogates the position of letterpress practice in design education. The article was invited for submission and builds upon a conference presentation at AIGA: Blunt (Old Dominion University, USA, 2013).
This paper questions the value of retaining letterpress workshops within art and design schools, not merely as a tool to understand our past, but to critically analyse the future. The benefits of teaching letterpress to graphic design students as a way of improving their understanding of typography are well documented. There is an argument for preserving ‘craft’ subjects including letterpress within the curriculum, as they foster immersive learning. The letterpress process is a significant teaching tool that complements, and can act in conjunction with, computer-based design education. This paper seeks to build upon these debates, examining the intersection between the practice and theory of an otherwise technologically outdated process.
The paper focuses upon 6x6: Collaborative Letterpress Project as a case study. This project brings together six leading UK Higher Education Institutions with active letterpress workshops. It encourages the sharing of best practice within a specialist subject area, through the creation of a collaborative publication where students and staff are linking their practice with critical and reflective writing in relation to the medium. The essays address a collective shift in letterpress practice, that is reflected in the work produced. Traditionally, workshop areas have been concerned with the acquisition of a skill, often taught through rote learning or technical demonstration. By positioning students at the centre of the process and enabling them to design, compose type and print, they have been encouraged to form their own perspective on the discipline. Through the examination of evolving letterpress paradigms, it is possible to question why we do something; as opposed to how it is done.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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